John Batchelor “gets it”

I just listened to last night’s show (9 pm-1am ET). 

He was basically covering the same news events I was blogging, live on the air.   John had relevant reporters and exports on the line, and was watching Twitter from reputable news sources picking up the explosion of reactor #2 and the fire on #4, and the reaction by the Asian stock markets (plus Saudi Arabia sending troops into Bahrain).

With his usual reminder that “in battle, the first 3 reports are wrong”, the collection of people sorted through the news as it was happening and put it through the filters of what they know and what they think they know, and came out with a very accurate evaluation of what was going on and what it menat.   Facebook and twitter were an integral part of getting the news very fast.

Those 4 hours are what radio should be – it’s the best use of syndicated radio I’ve ever heard.   It was focused – it wasn’t scare mongering, but it also wasn’t playing down the risks as not significant (the government version).  

John is one of the people who will first be affected by the Cumulus takeover of Citadel (and the syndicated Citadel Media that John works for).   The fear is that Mr Dickey is going to use small market economics and slash expenses.   I hope he recognizes the diamond hiding in the sand.   The world needs an alternative to Coast to Coast reruns and Phil Hendrie.